“A Tory tweet that questioned Danielle Smith’s childlessness forced the 41-year-old Wildrose leader Saturday to publicly disclose her private family struggles with infertility. The late-night tweet posted Friday night by Progressive Conservative staffer Amanda Wilkie suggested Smith’s political promises to Alberta families are insincere, because if she really liked children, she would have some of her own. Wilkie was a volunteer on the Progressive Conservative election campaign team and an executive assistant in the Premier’s Calgary office. She has resigned.”

Wow. Well, great example again of why you really need to be careful what you tweet.

“The rehabilitation of Canada’s youngest multiple killer is going so well, the teenager’s curfew has been extended as she inches toward freedom. The 18-year-old, who cannot be named, is taking university courses in Calgary and holds down a part-time job. At a sentencing review hearing in Medicine Hat’s Court of Queen’s Bench Friday morning, the girl was said to be making positive strides.”

“Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau, sporting a fresh shiner under his right eye, said Sunday that the sting of his boxing defeat to Liberal MP Justin Trudeau is nothing compared to the pain that will come from wearing a Liberal jersey for a week. He also said he’d like to meet the Liberal MP in the ring again next year for round two, also in support of cancer research. As of Saturday night, the Fight for the Cure event had raised more than $230,000 for the cancer foundation — $30,000 of that raised by the fighters themselves. The match itself was a stunning upset, with Trudeau brawling his way to a third-round TKO victory over Brazeau.”

Well done Trudeau! I think a lot of people lost money if they were betting on that fight, lol.

“Angelo Persichilli, the Toronto-based journalist who was named communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper last September, has resigned after seven months on the job. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, the 63-year-old says he was simply overwhelmed by the stress and pressure of the job and is stepping down on orders from his doctor. Mr. Persichilli took over the post after Dimitri Soudas departed last summer. He was the 11th person to serve as Mr. Harper’s senior communications aide since 2002, and the sixth person to act as his director of communications since Mr. Harper became Prime Minister.”

“A coalition of at least 70 countries pledged several million dollars a month Sunday and communications equipment for Syrian rebels and opposition activists, signaling deeper involvement in the conflict amid a growing belief that diplomacy and sanctions alone can’t end the regime’s repression. The shift by the U.S. and its Western and Arab allies toward seeking to sway the military balance in Syria, where heavily armed regime forces outmatch rebels, carries regional risks because the crisis there increasingly resembles a proxy conflict that could exacerbate sectarian tensions.”

“Burmese democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi all but completed her transformation from imprisoned icon to elected member of parliament Sunday as her party claimed it had won a resounding victory in a flawed election considered a key test of political reforms in Burma. The vote was the most dramatic gesture yet in the government’s sudden turn toward reform after decades of unyielding oppression.”

“As the clock struck 8:30 p.m. local time across the world Saturday, a silent but powerful sound could be heard: millions switched off their lights in observance of the sixth annual Earth Hour. The initiative aims to draw attention to energy use and climate change by encouraging homes and businesses to go dark for one hour. While most visible through darkened national landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Empire State Building, the Earth Hour commitments span the globe and touch into tiny towns and villages on six continents.”

A nice gesture… it should really be done more than once a year for just an hour.

“Lottery ticket-holders in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland each selected the winning numbers and will split a $640 million jackpot that was believed to be the world’s largest such prize, a lottery official said Saturday… each winning ticket was expected to be worth more than $213-million before taxes.”

“In an increasingly crowded market, most feature the word “fruit” on the front of their packages, usually incorporated into the product name. All a company has to do is make sure fruit purée makes up more than two per cent of the total product, and that’s enough for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Purées are highly processed, allowing for a long shelf life but can be stripped of fibre, many vitamins, minerals and other phytonutrients. Are these snacks providing the nutrition they seem to suggest? Are parents getting what they think they’re paying for? There’s no comparing fresh fruit with these snacks, says Rena Mendelson, a professor of nutrition at Ryerson University.”

“A new Spanish study links eating fast food and commercial baked goods with depression. The researchers said those who ate fast food, compared to those who did not, were 51% more likely to develop depression.”

“It’s true: 30 really is the new 20. A study by Friends Reunited, a British social-networking site, found that 70% of respondents over the age of 40 claimed they were not truly happy until they reached 33. “The age of 33 is enough time to have shaken off childhood naiveté and the wild scheming of teenaged years without losing the energy and enthusiasm of youth,” psychologist Donna Dawson said in the survey’s findings.”

“New research finds that studying just before sleeping improves a student’s ability to recall information. Even better, the researchers concluded that when you go to sleep after learning something, you slow down the rate of memory deterioration—the rate at which you forget things—after you wake up.”

“Companies looking to cut levels of workplace stress might have a simple solution: Let employees bring their dogs to work. Dogs in the workplace reduce the stress levels of their owners and brighten the days of people who came in to contact with the pets in important ways, according to a preliminary study conducted by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University. Compared with employees who did not bring their dogs to work and employees without pets, people who brought their dogs to work were found to have less stress, more job satisfaction and more organizational commitment.”

I’m sure this applies for cats too!!! Hoping to get a newsroom cat… lol.

“The fear of being watched, once the domain of conspiracy theorists and tinfoil milliners, is transcending mere paranoia to become a valid post-millennial concern. The stark difference is that now, it’s less a question of whether we’re being tracked but rather how, and by whom. Electronic passports, which contain a chip imprinted with travellers’ photos and personal information, are set to roll out in Canada this year, as a growing number of national headlines are giving Canadians pause about their privacy.”

“Research in Motion faces a tough year ahead as competition heightens for its products, warned analysts as they slashed price targets on the stock, after the company posted a loss and said BlackBerry shipments fell for the holiday quarter. On Thursday, RIM recorded its first quarterly loss since the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005 and said it would no longer issue financial forecasts… On Thursday, RIM’s new chief executive, Thorsten Heins, announced the initial steps in a strategic overhaul and would not rule out an eventual sale of the company, but a majority of the analysts are skeptical of the company’s turnaround efforts.”

“Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences have created a prototype for a new type of camera called Ubi-Camera that lets you snap a photograph by creating a rectangle with your hands.”

“Early this morning, GamesBeat reported that Porter (whose company developed the Pictionary-clone Draw Something), publicly called out the only employee not to join Zynga after the $180 million-plus buyout. In two different updates (which have since been deleted by Porter), the CEO said that former employee Shay Pierce was the “weakest” person on the development team. Porter also said that Pierce is “selfish” and a “failure.” “When the game blows up and we have the chance of a lifetime to do something special, and one employee — who didn’t work on the product and is more about his own games than the team — jumps in the press and becomes the story, it is very hurtful to all the people who are on the team,” Porter wrote in an email correspondence with GamesBeat this morning.”

“Galileo is that opportunity, seized. It’s a Kickstarter project by Motrr, founded by JoeBen Bevirt, who created the renowned Gorillapod, and Josh Guyot, who has crafted accessories for places like SnowPeak. Their new product is a 360-degree-rotating tripod built for iOS teleconferencing. The person on the receiving end of the line has control to change their view, panning and tilting with a swipe of the finger.”

“Last summer, South Korea’s Education Ministry announced plans to replace hardback textbooks with electronic readers and digital editions by 2015, at a cost of $2.4 billion. But after South Korean educators expressed concerns about the potential negative effects of too much screen time, the government is putting the brakes on going fully digital.”

“With the explosion of social networking, experts say long-form blogging increasingly is being snubbed in favour of trendier – and certainly more condensed – means of communication. Ironically, this shift is occurring as a just-released survey suggests blogging skills are many organizations’ top digital talent priority for 2012, trumping social media fluency, online brand management and even mobile application development. ‘Businesses assume that (graduating) students know how to blog because they’re digital natives. But most actually haven’t done it or don’t understand it,’ says William J. Ward, a social media professor at Syracuse University.”

I can say with a fair bit of confidence that I don’t fall into the category of graduating (recently graduated) students who don’t know how to blog. Woot woot.

“Credit card giants Visa and MasterCard were scrambling on Friday to thwart cyber crooks who looted a massive trove of precious account data, evidently from a payment processor in New York. Gartner analyst Avivah Litan said that industry sources revealed that numbers from more than 10 million credit card accounts were stolen in the breach, with the entry point being a New York City taxi and parking garage company. The thieves stockpiled stolen credit card numbers for months before beginning to use them, according to the analyst.”

“Foxconn Technology Group will keep on increasing worker salaries in China and cutting the hours of work, Chairman Terry Gou said on Sunday, after it came under fire for poor working conditions for employees making Apple iPhones and iPads.”

“Flash mobs have been blamed as a factor in looting during urban riots. But now a group of online activists is harnessing social media like Twitter and Facebook to get consumers to spend at locally owned stores in cities around the world in so-called Cash Mobs. At the first International Cash Mob day on Saturday, wallet- toting activists gathered in as many as 200 mobs in the United States and Europe, with the aim of spending at least $20 a piece in locally owned businesses.”

“Earth has only one decade to pull itself back from various environmental ‘tipping points’ — points at which the damage becomes irreversible, scientists have said. If it fails to do so, it is likely to witness a series of breakdowns in the systems that sustain people, such as oceans and soil, according to a major meeting on safeguarding the planet’s future, the Planet Under Pressure conference.”

“In an April Fools Day prank released Sunday, WestJet announced the new service on board select flights. In the video, a WestJet counter agent helps two harried parents plunk their crying, fussy children into a so-called “travel toboggan,” or cargo bin. As peaceful music plays in the background, the baby and pre-schooler are seen winding down the baggage belt. A little blonde girl with her hair in two braids waves goodbye to her parents. ‘Your child will be whisked away on a magic carpet ride and your work is done.'”

“If elected premier on April 23, Leader Danielle Smith pledged to embark on negotiations with neighbouring Saskatchewan to merge it with Alberta to form a new province to be dubbed “Saskberta.” The capital cities would be relocated to the border town Lloydminster, which would be renamed Regimonton.”

“Did you really think Google’s 8-Bit Google Maps “upgrade” was the only trick the company was going to pull for April Fools’ Day? Think again. Google has packed a boatload of faux product releases into the first day of April, even offering to help optimize content for rotary phones.”

“I’m sick and tired of scanning the Internet looking for any news about technology: Devices, gadgets, what’s coming up, maybe even a rating system for gadgets that are out there. It doesn’t exist on the web and it’s high time it did. I go to the Mashable see the atrocious job they’re doing. So I decided it’s time for me to take it over.”

Haha! Mashable was very orange today as Conan O’Brien took over as CEO ;)

“A new viral video chronicling Lindsay Lohan’s changing face over the years has been released and posted to YouTube. The video shows Lohan’s dramatically morphing face from infancy to age 25 years all in 60 seconds. The video description says: ‘A photo morph video showing the changes in Lindsay Lohan’s face over her short life. The shocking effects of drugs and alcohol on one of Hollywood’s brightest rising stars. These personal demons took a tremendous toll on her face. Luckily she seems to be in a really good place right now so hopefully she can turn her life around and find redemption.'”

Tremendous tolls on her face indeed. But yes, hope she can turn her life around.

“Police cruiser CCTV cameras are routinely used to record traffic stops and arrests. But every so often, those cameras capture something slightly more entertaining. A man arrested last November is now becoming a YouTube sensation. The individual was arrested for impaired driving and in an apparent protest to the arrest sings the entirety of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the back of the police cruiser. A CCTV camera captures the whole song while en route to the police station.”

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ABOUT LINDA

My name is Linda Hoang and I am a social media/communications specialist based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I blog about food, social media, and Edmonton / city events. I'm also the founder of the Edmonton International Cat Festival. Thank you for visiting!